Scientific truth is always paradox, if judged by everyday experience, which catches only the delusive appearance of things.

There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system which increases its wealth without diminishing its misery

The method of production of the material things of life generally determines the social, political and spiritual currents of life.

There are no bigger donkeys than these workers.... Look at our 'craftsmen'; Sad that world history should be be made with such people.

It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.

Colonial system, public debts, heavy taxes, protection, commercial wars, etc., these offshoots of the period of manufacture swell to gigantic proportions during the period of infancy of large-scale industry. The birth of the latter is celebrated by a vast, Hero-like slaughter of the innocents.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.